President Barack Obama's trip to Saudi Arabia this week comes amid accusations the State Department has hidden the results of a study that concludes textbooks in the Kingdom remain rife with Islamic extremism.

Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, successive U.S. administrations have attempted to curb Saudi indoctrination of students through hateful extremist material in its textbooks.

In addition to teaching the material to its own students, Saudi Arabia runs academies in about 20 countries, which use some of the same texts.

The Kingdom has repeatedly claimed that it has revised its textbooks.

In 2005, the Saudi government took out a full-page ad in the New Republic to boast of its success at "having modernized our school curricula to better prepare our children for the challenges of tomorrow."

But the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said on Tuesday the secret study finds Saudi textbooks still "create a climate that fosters exclusivity, intolerance, and calls to violence that put religious and ethnic minorities at risk."

Citing sources familiar with it, the Washington-based think tank said the Obama administration decided not to publish the study when it was completed in late 2012 because offensive material dehumanizing Jews and Christians included in the textbooks would portray the Saudis in a negative light.

"The State Department is in possession of a uniquely exhaustive set of recent findings about incitement in Saudi Arabia's education system, findings that it has declined to release for public consumption," the report said.

The study is the product of a reported $500,000 State Department contract with the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy.

On its website, ICRD says the project was commissioned to "assist in the ongoing effort by Saudi Arabia to remove discriminatory content from its public school curriculums and to evaluate its global impact in other Muslim-majority countries."

Current and former U.S. officials said the study paints a mixed picture of Saudi textbooks.

While it notes some progress by Saudis in making reforms and removing some of the most hateful language, the study still found areas for improvement.

"We know there's more work to be done," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

Ali Ahmed, a Saudi scholar who runs the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, has been studying Saudi textbooks since before the 9/11 attacks.

Ahmed said that in meetings with State Department officials over the years, he has found a consistent reluctance to put pressure on the Saudi royal family about the problem.

"I wrote papers and offered advice. I provided them with the textbooks showing evidence that the Saudis have not done anything," he said, adding that several officials warned him his campaign could damage U.S.-Saudi relations.

"The U.S. confronts China and Russia about human rights, but I don't know why they can't tell the Saudis to clean up their act on this issue," he said. "The U.S. is not a small country like Panama with no tools to force change. So either they are not serious or their policy is a failure here. If the U.S. wanted to bring some pressure, they can. They have not tried."

Harf said the United States has consistently and publicly encouraged Saudi Arabia to institute educational and textbook reforms, but disputed the notion that the State Department had ever planned to publish the study.

"It was intended to drive and inform the work of the State Department as we work with the Saudi government to push them to reform their textbooks," Harf said. "We obviously continue to push our partners to reform, and we believe with the Saudis that it's most effective to do this directly, with them, between our governments, and not publicly, and we do want to keep working with them to see if they can reform their curriculum more."

David Andrew Weinberg, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who wrote the study, said Saudi teachings of intolerance should be on the agenda when Obama visits the Kingdom this week.

"The hate speech so rampant in Saudi textbooks should be publicly addressed by the President while in Riyadh," Weinberg said. "Doing so would put hardliners on notice that even at this low point in U.S.-Saudi relations, the President will not shy away from affirming pluralistic American values and seeking reforms in the name of our national security."

soundoff(42 Responses)

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The GOP Solution: Turn all the Old, Sick, Poor, Non-white, Non-christian, Female, and Gay people into slaves. Then whip them until they are Young, Healthy, Rich, White, Christian, Male, and Straight. Or until they are dead. Then turn them into Soylent Green to feed the military during the next "unfunded/off-the-books" war. And don't forget the GOP all time favorites........TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH!!!..........and........GET RID OF SS AND MEDICARE!!!

In 2005, the Saudi government took out a full-page ad in the New Republic to boast of its success at "having modernized our school curricula to better prepare our children for the challenges of tomorrow."

"ALLAH AKBAR! SLAUGHTER THE ENEMY!"

That's the Saudi "revision". Tha'ts the Saudi idea of "preparing for the future".

The bottom line is the Saudis teach their children intolerance for other religions and peoples. I think it would be most telling if there were a way to see the particular sections of textbooks in question on the web for all of us to see. I would also like to see to pre 9/11 versions.
There are so many things wrong with Saudi Arabia, but teaching children to hate is the bottom for any nation.

March 30, 2014 at 1:02 pm |

Folke Bernadotte

On YouTube.............

ZIONISTS TEACH THEIR CHILDREN TO HATE ARABS. THE ISREALI CHILDREN EDUCATION

March 30, 2014 at 3:43 pm |

Harry Leg

Islam is a sick way of life and does not belong in western culture. It should stay in the middle east and only bombed when it tries to murder innocents. Islam is way to rape children by a bunch of filthy pigs pretending to be religious.

April 3, 2014 at 2:16 am |

Folke Bernadotte

And what of the millions of murders in which the Jews have conspired and committed? What of the rampant child molestation in orthodox Jewish communities and the Talmudic promotion of child molestation? What of a culture that has been banished from countries more than 100 times for conspiracy, usury, its inherent treachery and betrayal?

April 3, 2014 at 8:43 am |

BARUCH

I FULLY AGREE WITH YOU. A MAN MADE RELIGION THAT PREACHES HATRED TO ONE AND ALL WHO DO NOT FOLLOW THEIR FAITH

MY REPLY IS TO THE COMMENT MADE BY SAUL AS SURELY NEITHER JUDAISM OR CHRISTIANITY IS MAN MADE RELIGION BUT A DIVINE MESSAGE FROM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM ISSAC AND JACOB

April 2, 2014 at 5:38 am |

Folke Bernadotte

Every religion is man-made. Your bigotry against Islam is typical of the narcissistic culture you represent. To call yourselves "chosen" is disgusting. It's no different from Hitler's master-race. In fact...............

"Our race is the Master Race. We Jews are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattlce at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves." –

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in a speech to the Knesset quoted in Begin and the Beasts," New Statesman, June 25, 1982 by Amnon Kapeliouk.

April 2, 2014 at 9:11 am |

Fed up with Saudi Sauce

Enough of the Saudi Sauce making. Why can't the US just add the Kingdom to the sponsor of terrorist list and also note that the country is the poster child for female oppression and abuse

Because Saudi Arabia, along with Israel is the US government's "ally" in the Axis trying to take over the Middle East. We don't read about Saudi or Israeli crimes except three levels down on US media sites.

USA sucks :
why you people don't care about your own problems instead of searching to destroy other
countries like Syria ! supporting the bloody terrorists Al Qaeda is that what are you good at
the first nation my ass

If the US announced it would no longer provide any military assistance of any kind, direct or indirect, to the Kingdom. Al Qaeda would rule the country in a year. That night be better than what we have now

In fact Al Qaeda is Saudi's powerful Special Forces. Saudis finance Al Qaeda as was shown by recent events in Libya and in Syria and remain behind the scenes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. United States protecting the so-called "kingdom" is a mockery on the dead of 9/11

March 28, 2014 at 6:34 pm |

Folke Bernadotte

If the US stopped providing military assistance and political protection to anyone the Middle East would stabilize and Al Qaeda, along with most other radical groups would disappear. The US and Israel use the Saudis, Al Qaeda (a Saudi/US creation and proxy) and others as proxies in our Corporate/Bankster States of America imperialism.

March 29, 2014 at 4:19 pm |

Greg

You nailed it, mero. I feel the same way. I'm sick and tired of all the double talk that comes out of Washington D.C. This country's falling apart and those idiots in Washington want to take over Syria!

Most (almost all) of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi Arabian who leaned hating civilized people in their schools. It is of course our business to make sure that these Muslim terrorists are not brain washed by their stone age Islamic teachings.

It is not "brain washing" to hate or despise cultures that, for 150 years, have been manipulating, scheming, killing, scamming to get oil that belongs to the people of the Middle East. It isn't "brain washing" to despise Eastern European colonists who take whatever they want under the protection of the US.
We need to get OUT of the Middle East and let the people repossess their countries while there are still some resources left to use for development.

March 29, 2014 at 4:26 pm |

Ahmed

People should note that it's muslims pushing for change in Saudi texts.

The sooner the US and others wean themselves off of middle eastern oil the better for both the world and for the middle east. Having oil gives these kings and dictators lots of cash but stunts the growth of the nation. Their downfall once their oil is worthless or gone may be messy at first but will usher in an era of proper nation building. That alone will solve many of the issuess in the mideast.

That is true Ali, and it has been true since 1974, when the Energy Department was created with the charter and goal of achieving energy independence. We now have a huge bureaucracy that is funded with billions of $ but hasn't made one step closer to achieving its primary goal.

March 27, 2014 at 2:06 pm |

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